Tales of the Summoner
by Princess Coeurl
Summary: FFIV A collection of oneshots about Rydia Written for a Word of the Day challenge
1. Castle in the Clouds

Word: evanescent - adj - tending to vanish like vapor

Rydia loved the mist that clung to her valley, her entire world. Her mother had told her that living in this valley was like living in a cloud, one of those floating white things visible in the sky during midday. But to Rydia the clouds held more beauty for her than the sky. Each wonderfully contained and cool, all soft edges and safe. But she didn't need to see the other clouds. She preferred when the sun hid itself once more behind the mountains and her mist once more covered the valley, keeping her world small and dark and safe.

She resented the sun for burning away her mist. It left her rankled and exposed, just as it did the valley, turning her beautiful dull colors and quietly dissolving edges harsh and bright. Her mother would laugh when the green-haired girl wrinkled her nose at the light and run inside, telling her of places beyond the valley where the sun shone brightly every day and the only mist was the clouds in the sky. And Rydia would scrunch her face even more; she couldn't think of anything worse.

So when that night the mist had thinned and then disappeared entirely, she'd known immediately that something was wrong. And when the fire had come to chase her mist away forever, she though of her hated sun, come to burn her cloud and banishing her to the harsh world for good.


	2. Accounts

Word: postulate - verb - 1: demand, claim ; 2 a: to assume or claim as true, existent, or necessary; b: to assume as an established truth (as in logic or mathematics)

Rydia sat curled in the corner in the chamber in Fabul's castle. She kept her eyes shut tight, but couldn't help occasionally checking on the heavily bandaged figure on the cot next to her.

Things weren't supposed to be this way. Cecil had told her about Kain. According to Cecil, he was a proud, honorable man, loyal to his country, as strong of arm as of conviction, and always sure of his path.

Rydia hoped to meet this person someday. Anyone Cecil thought so much of had to be amazing.

She didn't connect this man at all to the monster who had threatened to kill her as her home burned. That man was nameless and lost to the past; if she were to meet Cecil's friend it would be for the first time, with a clean slate and no prejudices besides Cecil's praise.

But when she'd heard the commotion, when she'd ran with Rosa to Fabul's crystal chamber, it was the monster that met her, standing over her knight's bleeding body just as he'd stood over her mother. The nightmare had found its way to her again, and she could only stand and watch in wide-eyed terror.

She shifted against the hard stone, turning to look at Cecil's still body on the cot. She wanted him to wake up, but didn't want to have to tell him that it was his Kain that had been lost, not hers.


	3. Limits of Imagination

Rydia hurried through the feymarch, notebook clutched to her chest. Ashera had told her to talk to all the eidolons about their favorite places, to expand her knowledge of the world at large.

This assignment had proved both educational and entertaining. Her favorite part so far had definitely been when chocobo had tripped over his own feet as he ran in circles while gesturing (with his feet) to better explain the foliage of the chocobo forest. He'd been insulted when she'd laughed so hard that she fallen herself, but had instantly forgiven her when she'd pulled out the gysahl greens she'd brought as thanks for the interview.

She'd been writing her report on the chocobo forest when she'd realized she was late for her meeting with Shiva. With time being as fluid as it was in the feymarch she knew Shiva wouldn't mind, but Rydia's mother always said that people should be on time, period, and so she did the best she could.

A cold wave of air met her as she approached Shiva's dwelling. After knocking she entered quietly, finding the eidolon lounged on a throne of ice in the center of the small room. Shiva's gaze fell upon the green-haired summoner-in-training, aloofness tempered by the hint of a smile on her lips.

As soon as Rydia had arranged herself, notebook and quill at the ready, Shiva spoke.

"I suppose I could tell you of majestic cliffs of ice, of plains of snow so vast one can ride across it like one would across the waves of the ocean, of caves of frozen crystal, but such things would mean nothing to you, would they not?"

Rydia nodded, a little shamed by the framing of her ignorance. Everyone here was so smart and well-traveled; while she felt included in every other way, at times like this she felt as much the country bumpkin from the isolated mountain town as she assumed she would have growing up among humans.

As if speaking to these doubts, Shiva continued. "I could tell you of these places, and I will, in time. You are young and know only a world where such things don't exist. But that world will expand, and then we can speak of the splendors of my realm."

Fidgeting, Rydia asked, " But Ashera wanted me to learn of other places. How am I to do so if you will not tell me?" While she didn't want to be rude, neither did she want to disappoint the eidolon who had become like a mother to her.

"You are a master of size-changing spells, are you not?" Shiva's eyes were still hard and reflective like a sheet of ice, yet her tone, if anything, was gentle. "Cast a shrinking spell on yourself, if you please."

Though still nervous about how different this meeting was from the others, Rydia did as she was told. Shiva seemed to grow before her as she finished the incantation, now mountainous rather than towering as she normally did.

Shiva raised a hand, dispassionate eyes still somehow meeting Rydia's small ones, and threw ice at her in the same manner she attacked her enemies.

Rydia started, raising her hands to protect her head and shutting her eyes tight. Never would she have guessed that Shiva would react this way to such a simple request! They'd always gotten along so well before.

It took her a moment to realize she wasn't so much dead as suddenly very cold, and another to open her eyes. She gasped. Grand spires of ice rose like mountains over her, great expanses of snow stretched before her ending only at the greatest height of all, Shiva's throne, which jutted from the ground like stalagmites in a cave roofed by the sky.

She could not have understood, she realized, without the towering scale and the immersive perspective. No matter how hard she'd tried, all she'd been able to picture as Shiva's realm was the tips of white on the mountains, far in the distance, or the occasional snow in Mist that left blades of grass poking through, and it could simply not compare.

Other implications of her experience would hit her years later. At the moment she was merely a child in a wintry wonderland.


	4. Vengence

Word: inane - noun - void or empty space  
A/N: When it comes to the Edge/Rydia pairing I can take it or leave it. They'd probably interact quite a bit, though, since I know _I_ wouldn't want to get in the middle of Baronian drama.

Rydia found Edge in a dark corner of the Dwarven castle. She didn't know how she'd known to look there. It was probably because she too had searched out the deepest reaches of the Feymarch when she wanted to be alone to think of her mother.

He didn't respond as she approached. He looked so small, she thought, hunched against the stone wall, stature so different from the blustering arrogance he usually exhibited.

Sitting carefully beside him, she waited. If he wanted to talk she had things to say, but if not she'd just stay here for a while. She'd found being alone with her grief to not be quite so hard if she was with someone else.

"I'm such a jerk," he said eventually, still not looking at her. "They were good parents, and all I did was fool around and make shows of pointless rebellion. I never got to tell them how much I appreciated what they'd done for me."

"I think they understood, at the end." The summoner didn't look at him either, speaking out into the dim expanse of the room. "They knew you cared, in their last moments."

He shifted, and a few of the shadows fell away from his face. He wasn't wearing his mask, she realized, for the first time since they'd met. But he hadn't been expecting her, so Rydia subdued her curiosity and kept her eyes forward.

"Killing Rubicante was supposed to make it better."

The emptiness in his voice was one she knew. She could tell him about it, how the pain faded along with the memories, how everything would be fine except for that small part that was gone and would never be coming back.

Instead she said, "It didn't help me, either." She doubted he knew her history, but he didn't ask. And she was grateful; she'd relived that moment enough times today.

They sat in silence a while longer.

Finally, Edge rolled to his feet, pulling his mask back over his face in the same fluid motion.

"If you ever need to talk about it, I'll always be happy to comfort you."

Rydia scoffed and stood. She could see that annoying smirk through his mask and it irked her. "If you've got the energy to throw around bad pickup lines then you have the energy to stop moping. So get back out there. The others were worried about you're worthless hide."

She stomped up the stairs, not waiting to see if he followed. From the sounds of it he wasn't, though she'd already learned not to judge on such terms when it came to their newest traveling companion. But she wouldn't begrudge him the time alone, now. She knew he'd be fine.


End file.
